The Experiment
by caught in the wind
Summary: In high school, you experiment with everything. In the chemistry lab you experiment with fluids, in math you experiment with numbers - Puck and Rachel are going to experiment with love. But it's fair to say niether of them have a clue what they're doing.


Having a freezing cold slushie thrown in your face is a horrible experience. Not only does the slushie give you a killer brain freeze, ruin your clothes _and _drip all the way into your underpants, it's completely and utterly humiliating.

No one knows this better than Rachel Berry, who unfortunately finds herself covered in flavoured ice almost every day. Having been so used to getting a slushie facial, Rachel kept a change of clothes in her locker, as walking around in wet, stained clothes all day was _not _a good look for an aspiring star like herself.

The usual victims of a slushie attack are nerds, geeks, outsiders, and people in Glee club. Rachel happens to fall in the Glee club category, therefore a hair full of ice on a morning is something she'd grown used to. Also, having two gay dads as your parents isn't exactly a popularity booster; and an annoying, know-it-all attitude paired with a wider vocabulary than your average dictionary isn't much help, either.

The people on the other end of the slushies are branded as the 'popular' people. A cereal slushie thrower, Noah Puckerman (known as 'Puck' to everyone at McKinley High) enjoys nothing more than to smother a freak with a freezing cold slushie. Hey, if he wasn't around to draw the line between Populars and Freak, who knows what'd happen? Geekettes sitting with the cheerleaders at lunch, nerds joining the football team, _popular _people (like Puck) taking part in _Glee club_. Just the thought of that stupid, annoying, sing-song club made him want to throw a dweeb into a locker.

For as long as Puck could remember, Rachel (who is simply referred to as 'that weird girl from Glee club') had been his main target when throwing slushies. He enjoyed walking down the crowded hall of McKinley High School, spotting her small, petite body stood next to her locker and throwing a slushie in her face. While that weird girl from Glee club was left with an awful brain freeze, Puck carried on down the halls, making sure no nerds or geeks or anyone below his level had the balls to look him in the eye. If they did, they'd face a whole week of being thrown into the dumpster.

It wasn't that Puck intended to give these people a hard time, it just happened. Only his best friend Finn knew about his abusive father whom Puck truly despised. Puck had inherited his father's looks, but he had his mother's eyes. He had also inherited his father's temper, which caused him to lose control a lot of the time. It didn't bother Puck that he was a badass, in fact he was proud people branded him as one. But there is a unknown side to Noah Puckerman that not many people know about...

After his dad left when he was nine, he'd took it upon himself to act as a father figure to his little sister, Sarah. And occasionally he'd make sure his mom was treated like a queen; buying her chocolate (okay, it was only 5 dollars from the gas station, but it's still chocolate), letting her pick what she wants to watch on TV, and watching the weekly viewing of Schindler's List—Puck hated the movie, but he enjoyed the gruesome bits, his sister usually screamed all the way through, while his mom sat and cried her eyes out, saying "We're not better than them, Noah. Why can't you date a Jewish girl?" When his mom said that, it really hit home because, out of all the girls Puck had slept with in his short 17 years (which is a _long _list), not one of them had been a Jew.

Rachel Berry was a sixteen year old Jew with her sights set on being a star. Through her 16 years on the stage, she had learnt one thing: Never let anyone bring you down. High school was a tough place for people like her; while all she wanted to achieve good grades and be the shining star in Glee club and most of the school musicals, the older teens constantly bullied her, finding her dream of being a star completely stupid for no one in Lima, Ohio has never achieved anything.

Rachel's only hope of truly being a star in her high school was Glee club. Sadly, it wasn't the most popular extra curriculum activity. When Mr Ryerson got fired for 'touching a student in a wrong way', Mr Schuester had taken over Glee club with a few song sheets and bucket loads of hope. That was, until, he found out who was in the Glee club—5 talented misfits who were placed right at the bottom of the social food chain. Kurt Hummel: a 16 year old teenage boy struggling with his sexuality, Artie: a kid in a wheelchair, Mercedes Jones: a strong independent black girl with a big voice, Tina C: a shy girl with a stutter and Rachel Berry: that weird girl from Glee club who gets a slushie facial every day, but has perhaps the best voice you've ever heard in your life.

Desperate for new Glee clubbers, Mr Schuester asked Emma Pilsbury, the school's guidance consular for help. She told him that teenagers are influenced by each other, once a popular person does something, everyone else follows in his or hers footsteps. Absorbing this useful information, Mr Schuester decided to talk to the school's football team, as it was crammed full with popular guys.

The day Mr Schuester came to talk to the football team about joining homo explosion, Noah Puckerman decided that Mr S was whack. He thought all teachers had some kind of mental problem for _wanting _to sit in a class room all day and talk about how a good education changes your life. Seriously, how is knowing who JFK was going to determine what kind of job Puck got in the future? The conclusion: teachers are whack. But the fact that Mr S had come to the _football _team, the _home _of hot, popular guys like Puck, was just crossing the line.

"Glee club needs guys," the young teacher said with a hopeful smile as his eyes swept across the army of handsome popular teenage boys who were all looking at him as if he were on something, "The sign up sheet's outside the locker room so...yeah." He finished with an awkward smile before disappearing out of the boy's locker room.

Later that day, Puck and his friends, excluding his best friend Finn Hudson, who had decided to take a shower long after everyone else, walked up to the signup sheet for Glee club. Puck pulled out a pen and, in his capitalized scrawl, wrote the word 'Penis' at the bottom of the page. He laughed and his friends soon joined in, and they too began to write names like 'Gaylord' and 'Fag'. When the signup sheet was scattered with offensive names, Puck and his friends walked down the hallway, laughing so hard that Puck forgot to slushie a passing Rachel Berry, who had watched their unthinkable crime (in her mind) with gritted teeth and clenched fists.

She didn't dare confront him, but in her mind she was making a three hour lecture about vandalizing. As she made her way down the hall, books clutched closely to her crazy animal sweater, she took a moment to glance down the hall at Puck and his friends. She sighed momentarily, thinking about what a waste of humanity Puck was, before continuing her way to Glee rehearsal.

Unsurprising, Rachel was first to arrive at the auditorium. Slowly, she made her way down to the stage throw the endless rows of red seats. She imagined she was performing in front of a crowd of cheering people, while singing Defying Gravity from the exceptional Broadway musical, Wicked. When she reached the stage, she began singing at the top of her voice, not caring that no one could hear her, or the fact that the only things looking at her was a thousand red chairs. Because when Rachel sang, nothing else mattered.

"Sorry to rain on your parade, but it's about time someone stopped you singin' that fancy pants, sugary sweet sing song show tune."

Mercedes.

Rachel looked up, snapping out of the magical trance that singing always put her in. Hastily trying to gain her composure, she smoothed her hands down her sides until they landed confidently on her waist, "It's a shame you can't appreciate the fact that the original version of Defying Gravity is one of the most beautiful, meaningful songs in the whole world –"

"Sorry Mercedes, but I have to agree with Crazy Sweater Girl on this one. Defying Gravity is an amazing song," Kurt Hummel said knowingly as he joined Mercedes at the side of the stage.

Rachel flashed Kurt a grateful glance, but it faded instantly as she realized he'd insulted her dress sense. She looked down at her sweater – hand knitted by her grandmother, with a cute little rabbit on the front – and sighed, what was wrong with it?

"D-d-d-did you h-h-hear?" Tina asked as she wheeled Artie down to the stage, "Mr Schuester g-g-got F-F-Finn Hudson to be in Glee club. H-h-h-how awesome is that?"

Tina had a serious stutter problem, which annoyed Rachel no end. But placing Tina's annoying stutter in the corner of her mind, she sucked in a breath and exhaled slowly, "Finn Hudson?" she aksed in amazement, "You mean the star Backquarter?"

"You mean Quarterback," Mercedes said with a roll of her eyes.

Rachel blushed, she hated getting things wrong, but football was one of the few areas in which she was totally clueless. As she knew is that a lot of guys, preferably popular ones, run around a field dressed in shoulder pads trying to get the ball so they can throw it over a big metal...thing.

Rachel jaw stiffend and she shrugged, "Forgetting about his position of the football field, let's focus on his position in the social heap. As you all may of noticed Finn Hudson is right at the top, he's _popular _guys! If he joins Glee club, then this will open a lot of doors for us; more people like him will join Glee and we won't be seen as the stupid club that no one cares about anymore!"

Rachel's face lit up with hope and his chocolate tinted eyes widened with hope. The rest of the Glee clubbers just stared at her, wondering what exactly what went on her brain.

It was at that moment that Mr Schuester entered the auditorium with a huge smile plastered on his handsome face. The tall, handsome – and incredibly nervous at that moment – Finn Hudson followed him, being sure to stay in his shadow and keep his head down.

Rachel smiled broadly, "It's nice to see you Mr Schuester."

Mr Schuester smiled at Rachel, before stepping to the side to reveal a humiliated Finn Hudson, "Guys," he said, "Please welcome Finn Hudson to our Glee club!"

Rachel knew from the moment Finn started singing You're The One That I Want from Grease that there was something special about him. She threw herself into the performace, determined to make Finn impressed with her amazing voice and ability to sway him back and forth while singing like they were on some kind of see-saw. But after that first rehearsal with Finn Hudson, he gave her a look that screamed 'Please stay away from me'.

Some things just do not sit well with Noah Puckerman.

He doesn't like it when his mom burns his mac and cheese.

He doesn't like it when he hears all the hot girls gushing about how hot that weird Edward Cullen dude is, when the Puckster is stood right in front of them.

He doesn't like it when he makes it to the final level of Super Mario Bros, just for his little sister to 'accidently' delete all his saved progress.

And he _certainly _doesn't like it when his best friend decides to join the homo explosion that is – gritted teeth – _Glee club_.

"You _are _jokin' with me, right? Dude, I thought you were all man," That was Puck's reaction when his best friend informed him that he had joined Glee club.

"It's not like that," Finn grumbled, as they walked across the football field after practice, "Mr Schuester won't let me pass Spanish if I don't do this stupid Glee club thing, and if I don't pass Spanish then I won't be able to be on the football team anymore."

Puck slapped Finn's back with a firm, but friendly, hand, "That's tough. That's really tough," for a moment, Finn thought Puck had seen the pressure of Finn's situation. He was wrong. "Tough _shit_," Puck spat, making Finn sigh and roll his eyes – same old Puck, "Come on, dude. I'm your bro so I gotta look out for you, but there's nothing I can do if you're dancing around in fucking tutus, singing about shit like...I don't know, love and whatever. Make another deal with Mr S, before people start finding out about this."

While getting changed in the locker room, Puck continued to make jabs on Finn's Glee club situation. The truth was, Puck wouldn't be so harsh if his on/off girlfriend, the hot goddess Santana Lopez, hadn't dumped him for getting a low credit score. She said something about needing 'financial security', whatever that was, and that shit made Puck angry, but more small and stupid than anything else. After all, it's not _his _fault he's not the smartest guy ever, is it? It used to be all teenage girls wanted was an amazingly good time in the bedroom, which Puck could always give them. But now they kept rambling on about shit like _futures_. Seriously, where's the fun in that?

After practice, Puck said bye to all of his friends, before hopping into his second hand truck. It was an old car but it ran like a dream, and even though the engine was louder than a jet plane, Puck loved the car more than any of those stupid, money-obsessed bitches at school.

The next day at approximately 6 AM, Rachel Berry's alarm clock started blearing out the lyrics from one of her favourite songs;  
_Ain't nothing gunna brake my stride,  
Nothing gunna slow me down,  
I know, I've got to keep on moving!  
_She began her morning routine by having her protein shake with banana and flex seed oil. By 6:10 she was on her elliptical, staring at the picture in front of her; a Grammy award with _her _name written on it, followed by her signature gold star.

When Rachel got to school, she hastily made her way to her locker, keep an eye out for Puck and his friends. A slushie facial was a definite event, but she couldn't help but _hope _she could go through the day without changing her clothes.

When she opened her locker, she was greeted with a picture of her and her two gay dads. She smiled softly at the photograph, cringing as she noticed her gap toothed grin.

Rachel felt someone's presence next to her. She gulped and instantly felt shaky—a picture of Noah Puckerman standing behind her with a freshly made slushie in his hands began to form in her mind. When she turned around, that's exactly what she saw.

She closed her eyes and prepared for her icy cold fate.

After cleaning herself up in the girls' toilets and changing her clothes, Rachel took a deep breath and headed out into the crowded mess of the hall. She kept an eye out for Puck. But instead she spotted Finn, standing by his locker with his girlfriend, Quinn Fabray—the head cheerleader at McKinley high. Rachel made her way over to her locker—which, coincidentally was 3 away from Finn's—and stuffed her slushie-stained clothes inside. She began to pick up on their conversation, and began applying blush to her cheeks as a way of staying put.

"You _can't _be in Glee, Finn."

"It's not my choice. Mr Schuester said if I want to pass Spanish I need to take part in Glee club."

Quinn made a exasperated sigh, "People think you're gay now, Finn. And what does that make me? Your big, gay, _beard_."

Finn slammed his locker shut, making Rachel jump with fright—she tilted her compact mirror in the direction of Finn and Quinn and watched as his face scrunched up.

"Listen, Quinn, I don't _want _to be in Glee club, okay? I didn't even know we had a Glee club before I started it," Finn glanced at Rachel for a moment and Quinn followed his gaze, she quickly adverted her gaze to her locker and lowered her compact mirror quickly, but she knew they'd already saw.

Finn mumbled something about football practice and dissepeared. Rachel closed her locker and was prepared to follow him, but Quinn tapped her on the shoulder. Nervous, Rachel turned around with an uneasy smile on her face.

"I've got three things to say to you, Man Hands," Quinn spat, hands on hips, perfectly plucked eyebrows raised, "One, you're a terrible eavesdropper. Second, don't think just because Finn is in your precious Glee club that you have a chance with him. And third, that blusher makes you look like a clown." With that, Quinn turned on her heels and walked away, her blonde ponytail bobbing up and down as she made her way down the hall.

Rachel stared after her, mouth hanging wide open. She sniffed and dropped her head in her hands, desperate to know why everyone seemed to hate her. She'd never even had a proper conversation with Quinn Fabray before. What did she do to make everyone despise her?

Puck stood at his locker with Finn by his side. They were talking about Finn's latest Glee club rehearsal, where he'd had to sing Gold Digger. Secretly, Finn had enjoyed it, but to make Puck satisfied he continued to moan on and on about how boring and lame the club was. Little did they know, that Rachel Berry was listening in on their conversation.

"And there's this Rachel Berry chick. She's really annoying and sometimes I have to check under my bed at night to make sure she's not hiding out down there, but she has an amazing voice," Finn's words touched Rachel and she smiled gently.

"Rachel's the one I always throw slushies at, right?" Puck's was sounded genuinely oblivious to the fact that the girl who's life he made total, wet, cold, icy hell was Rachel Berry. This hurt Rachel slightly—not because Puck was one of the few people in this school who just refer to her as 'the weird girl from Glee club', it was the fact that since she started this school as a freshman, Puck had been a sophomore and since then had made her life pretty much living hell. It stung that after a whole year he hadn't even bothered to learn her name.

"Yeah. And she's the girl we threw eggs at the other week," Finn added with a half-hearted smile.

Rachel gasped. That had been _them_? It'd taken her at least two weeks to get all the egg out of her hair!

Full of anger, Rachel emerged from her hiding place and stormed up to the two teenage boys with rage.

"Speak of the devil," Puck chuckled.

"Hello, _Finn_," Rachel snarled, hands placed on her side as her mouth began moving at the speed of light, "I happen to know you throuougly enjoyed our last Glee rehearsal. And, if I remember correctly, _you _offered to take the male lead in Gold Digger. I was just overhearing your conversation and if I do say so myself what you have just said Noah is a total and complete lie."

Finn blinked, "Uh..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Puck's ran a hand threw his Mohawk and stared at the tiny girl in front of him, "What did you just call me?"

Rachel shifted and gulped, "I-I called you Noah. That is your name, is it not?"

Puck gritted his teeth; he hated her formal tone, "My name is _Puck_."

"Puck is just a stupid nickname adapted from your second name: Puckerman," Rachel struggled to maintain her confident compsure with Puck staring at her like that.

"Stupid?" Puck paused, thinking of an expectable punishment, "Do you _want _to be thrown in the dumpster with a nice helping of slushie on your face?"

Rachel took a deep breath and shook her head violently.

When he seen the scared looked on her face, Puck considered his threat a job done. But there was something about how her chocolate brown eyes squinted slightly, as if she was expecting him to pull out a slushie. He didn't know why, but that made him feel like a total asshole.

"I'll just be going then..." Finn said quietly, slowly edging away from them.

Puck nodded, "Yeah, man. We gotta get to football practice."

Rachel stammered, "I-I expect you see you at our next Glee club rehearsal, right, Finn?"

Finn looked at Puck who looked back with a eyebrow raised. Sighing Finn turned around and gave her a apologetic smile, "Uh, maybe."

Rachel nodded and smiled excitedly, taking his uncertain maybe as a total and complete yes.

As Puck walked to football practice with Finn, he took a moment to process what had just happened. Had that Rachel chick _really _had the confidence to stand up to him like that? Most of the guys of the football team didn't dare say anything to Puck at all. As he chewed on his lip, he wondered what he was feeling—anger, or astonishment.

Despite being one of the hottest girls in school, Quinn Fabray was completely religious and wholesome, which is why she was head of the celibacy club.

The members of McKinley High School's celibacy club contained half of the football team and the centire cheerleading squad. Finn had only joined so he could go further with Quinn, Puck had only joined to get into every cheerleader's pants (even though he'd already done most of them). Basically, it consisted of popular people, and none of them apart from Quinn Fabray truly valued what the club stood for.

That was, until, Rachel Berry joined (followed by Jacob Ben Israel, a typical nerd with a huge Jew fro, who had a creepy crush on her).

Rachel joined to get an insight into the popular people's lives—and Finn's. Although no one was particularly happy to have her there, Rachel put that out of her mind.

The cheerleaders sat in a row, Quinn Fabray in the centre. She let out a sigh, "According to a school rule that says we have to let anyone into the club," Quinn glared at Rachel, "Please welcome Rachel Whatshername."

"Where are all the boys?" Rachel asked suddenly.

"They're down the hall. For the first half hour we separate, then we come together to share our fate."

Rachel's lip tightened as she gave Quinn an understanding nod.

She had to remind herself why she'd come here in the first place.


End file.
